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Are You Feeling As Stuffed As That Butterball Bird You Just Devoured?

Posted on November 24 2017

Ok, the holiday meals over, you just couldn’t say no to that extra helping of stuffing, swimming in gravy. Or the slice of pumpkin AND pecan pie that made it's way around the table, right?Well, if you get up from the table with your stomach feeling as large as that turkey did before it was carved. You might have indulged a bit too much.

With that holiday meal under your belt (Loosened belt that is!) and those extra portions of potatoes, turkey (white and dark meats), along with those few glasses of wine, you might have just eaten about 3,000 -5,000 calories of food at that one sitting. That’s an enormous amount of food when you consider that 2,000 calories are about the typical allowed amount for a person weighing 180 lbs for the whole day!

That’s keeping most of the portion sizes down to between 6 oz. for the meats, and about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup sizes for the sides. With only 4 oz. allowed for the gravy and (1) roll!! The pie, a 5oz limit and only 1 slice at that.

So you can see, at this time of year, its a little hard to keep to the above-recommended portion sizes and we are ALL probably guilty overdoing it a little. But the thing to keep in mind is that you’re going to have to pay up for the festive indulging that takes place during this and the other holiday meals, that happen this time of year. That is, if you want to get back on track with eating as healthy as you possibly can be during this tempting holiday season. And it's really only just beginning!

To burn off those extra 2,000 calories, a 180-pound person would have to walk briskly (about 3.5 miles an hour on a level surface) for 5 hours or more. And we are not kidding.

Instead of doing this all at one time, try to walk an extra hour a day for the next week, but make sure your pace is brisk and your arms are swinging in time to your strides. Some damage control, right?

When you tally the calories in some of the most favorite Thanksgiving foods. You find that a holiday meal with many of the trimmings (turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, cranberry salad, rolls, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, apple cider, and wine) has about 1,610 calories and about 40 grams of fat. That's with no heaping portions or seconds.

Remember there are 3,500 calories in a pound, so to have actually gained three or four pounds, you would’ve had to consume more than 10,500 to 14,000 extra calories! Even though sources estimate the average American might take in 2,000 to 4,500 calories over the course of Thanksgiving Day eating, that still only adds up to about a pound at the most. One thing that you can do to help alleviate that bloating feeling is to increase your fluid intake for the next few days to help flush out your system and keep it moving, which will ease that bloating feeling sooner than later.

So besides consuming a larger than normal quantity of water, what else can you do to help yourself get back on track? Simply, what you’ve been doing for a while now. Go for a walk! This can aid digestion and possibly help decrease the fat your body stores. Studies have shown that most people who took a light walk after a high-fat meal, decreased their post-meal triglyceride concentration (the type of fat your body stores to use for energy) by around 70 percent compared to the non-walking group.

Now we know you’ve been walking on and off for a while now. After all, how else would you have come across our blog posts if you weren’t familiar with our online store page of PedometersUSA.com? And if you haven’t made it to the next important step which is to begin tracking just how many steps you take each day. Well now is the time to commit to getting track. And our pick of the best pedometer for a beginner is the Yamax SW-200 Digi-Walker step pedometerThe SW-200 will do just what you want at this stage of your getting healthy lifestyle. It will count your steps, and only your steps for now. And it can then be reset after it has maxed out at 99,999 steps. Now when you have reached that point, it may be time to move on up to an Activity Monitor. But walk before you run and the SW-200 will get you there.

So there you have it, not only some info on how many calories some of your favorite Thanksgiving Day favorites added to your daily food intake, but how you can get yourself back on track to being in control of how you handle the holiday festive food bonanzas that will be coming at you from every holiday house you visit.

Be strong, exert some control, but keep in mind that these holidays only come around once a year so it really is ok to have some of your favorite foods. Just realize that a dialed down portion size can go a long way in helping you to be comfortable both at and away from those holiday tables.

So from our Gang of Thanksgiving Characters here at PedometersUSA.com to You and Your Family and Friends. We hope you had a Great Thanksgiving! Now get out there and Walk!